The day (or night) after the party

[amadine]

Here's something interesting, for those keeping track: however recognizable we might be as Infiltrators, our overlays don't necessarily look at all the same when we're not at home. And I'm not speaking of the more obvious changes, like those who possess someone of a different species entirely.

The last time we visited this world, the woman I Infiltrated as had a sister. Still has, in point of fact, but she doesn't look a damn thing like the Traveler who last played her this time around.

Comments

[fridgeninja]

Hm.

I've been looking for Gorgon-Souji, and I don't see him. But... maybe it's possible that he's here, and I just don't recognize him?

Maybe his actual name doesn't sound like 'Souji' either.

[amadine]

It's possible. And would explain why so many people from so many different worlds all happen to have names that sound conveniently like our own.

[fridgeninja]

I used to think it was as simple as 'if I was born into this world, this person would be the version of me that existed.'

I'm not sure about that anymore.

[thornsofmalkav]

I think two of mine really were that. Like, Thorne in Newport and Dr Durante in Harrogate were versions of me, complete with similar memories of their childhoods and the same family? Except somewhere along the way they did different stuff than I did. But, like, they were the only ones. The rest of them have just been-- similar people. Not me.

[fridgeninja]

I did think it was unlikely I was ever born a mermaid.

Thorne is not the woman marked by the moon. She just thinks she is. She is wrong.

[thornsofmalkav]

Yeah. Or me the actual moon instead of just being marked by her. Uh, symbolically back home, not literally here.

[fridgeninja]

Traveling gets confusing sometimes.

[amadine]

That's a popular theory.

But the idea that so many of us apparently existed in alternate form - in multiple alternate forms simultaneously, if you consider the world of the Shoals and the Bando - on each world we visited was always a little...convenient.

[fridgeninja]

... I hadn't thought about that. So far, there's only been one world I infiltrated in twice.

[amadine]

Which was that?

[thornsofmalkav]

Oh wow.

I mean, even without me in them, the Charoites look a lot like me still... but, uh, Hecatites shape their bodies how they want them to look and I'm pretty sure that the younger one decided on her adult appearance when I was still in her during the first Questing Country Jaunt. So that might be why.

[amadine]

It could be - your own self image bleeding through to influence hers while she was still impressionable.


But I imagine it's more complicated than always appearing the same, or always different. If we keep revisiting old worlds, we might even work out the pattern. Or the mechanism.

[thornsofmalkav]

Yeah. I mean, it's not a one-to-one match and I think Charoite was interested in looking more human than a lot of Hecatites anyway given how all her friends were humans... but yeah. I'm pretty sure that happened a little.

Anyway. I'll keep notes on this stuff so that we can look at it later.

[amadine]

There's certainly going to be enough to sort through once we get a little breathing space. Juggling three sets of disasters at once is going to be...novel.

[thornsofmalkav]

Seriously.

... so is Nessa doing okay? I kinda drifted apart from Neeshka even with the bond, but I know Charoite-Thorn was fond of her Infiltration.

[amadine]

She's fine. She's...content. I expect that's why she stopped Dreaming. She didn't need it any more.

[theflyingone]

An illusion from the Arcana or their Network?

[amadine]

You may as well ask 'an apple, or an apple?'

But I suspect it's along those lines, yes - the better to keep up on track, and draw us to the right people.

[theflyingone]

Why did they not see fit to tell us this before?

[amadine]

They didn't see fit to tell us this now, either.

[theflyingone]

You know what I mean. Why would they hide this from us?

[thornsofmalkav]

Possibly it's less deliberate hiding and more not realizing they should say a thing. As much as they've been trying to talk to us on our level they're still very alien intelligences.

[amadine]

We're disposable pawns, to be used until we've run dry, then left to languish in our own nightmares until and unless some of our compatriots stumble in to set us free. How many fundamental secrets of the universe do you tell your playing pieces?

[truerevelation]

Now you're saying that... huh. Thought I saw one of mine, but I'm gonna keep my eyes open in case I spot him again. Mighta been the costume that gave it away.

Guess that means that ... when we pick up forms, that's ... just us, too. We ain't running round being someone else. Kinda reassuring in a weird way.

[amadine]

I expect so. On some level, we remember how to be something different, and impose that over our normal shape.